The Monkey Bar, Balmain

Suckling pig $20.00
available only on Tuesdays

Ahhh suckling pig. Let's not think about scenes from Babe, but instead appreciate the glorious sight of --ooh! the crackling! ahh the tender flesh!

Tuesday night is Suckling Pig and Mussels night at the Monkey Bar in Balmain. A recent change in restaurant management meant our Entertainment Card was rejected, but we stayed in the bar anyway, swayed by the menu and the unwelcoming swirl of cold winds outside.


Mussels $8.00
available only on Tuesdays

A bowl of mussels can be had for a very affordable $8.00. It's not a huge portion, but the dozen-mussel portion works well as a shared appetiser among four, even if the mussels themselves are quite small in the shell.

Much more impressive is the suckling pig, the biggest selling dish of the evening, we notice, of the tables around us. It's a narrow rectangular platter that holds a portion of suckling on one end, a mound of salad greens on the other. The crackling is picture perfect, golden and bubbled to a delicious crisp. The bed of mash is tasty too.


Local calamari floured and fried $15.00
served with chips and leaf salad

I also have a stake in the calamari, tender curls lightly floured and fried. Served with a generous pot of aioli, we gobble the lot including the crunchy shoestring fries and the smattering of palate-cleansing salad.


Beer battered flathead fillets $16.50
served with aioli and chips

Beer-battered flathead fillets are sweet and fresh, its light, crisp and airy batter adorned with a bonus lace petticoat.


Crespelle con mousse di cioccolata $11.90
Crepes filled with Belgium chocolate mousse
served with roasted almond gelato

Our crepes arrive to craning necks and envious glances from the next table. The chocolate mousse filling is more like a thick chocolate paste, and our promised almond gelato has been replaced with a too sweet vanilla ice cream, but the puddle of chocolate provides a celebration of decadence. Rich and a tad cloying in sweetness, it's probably shared between two.


Meringa $11.90
Italian meringue served with vanilla mascarpone,
strawberries and orange montenegro jelly

The meringa is much more of a success, a battle of spoons ensuing for extra mouthfuls. A sugary pillow of crunchy meringue is slathered with creamy vanilla mascarpone and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. The swirl of orange jelly and macerated ruby grapefruit provides a refreshing counterpoint to the sweetness of the meringue.

There are no monkeys are the bar tonight, but there are certainly plenty of little piglets.

The Monkey Bar
255 Darling Street, Balmain, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9810 1749

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